The POWER OF HOPE

Romans 15:13, 1 Corinthians 13:13

Of all the people alive today, Christians are the only one who have true hope. There is nothing as terrible as a feeling of hopelessness in any particular situation but the good news is that if you are a believer there is hope for us in every situation irrespective of what the circumstances are. And the reason is because we have Christ who is our hope.

There are three powerful forces in the kingdom of God according to 1 Cor 13:13. And now abideth Faith, hope and love but the greatest of this is love.There must be a reason why God has put hope in the midst of faith and love. There are a lot of teachings on faith and love, but one rarely hears teaching on hope but hope is one of the three powerful forces in the God’s kingdom.

God does not waste words and I believe that for our faith and love to work, we have to have hope.

Hebrews 11:1 ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. This means that you have to have hope that something will happen before your faith can work

Someone once said ‘what oxygen is to the lungs is what hope is to life’. If one is deprived of oxygen for a few minutes the person dies or at least becomes brain dead and in the same way, if we give up hope, life goes downhill.

In fact for non Christians, once they give up hope, they just go and commit suicide

As a believer if you are able to keep your hope alive, it doesn’t matter what your situation is, you will always come out victorious. That is why I believe that you will have victory in that marital challenge or financial situation or health issue you are going through right now in the name of Jesus

What is hope?

It means to cherish a desire with anticipation.

It means to desire with expectation of obtainment. That you just know that it is going to happen.

To expect with confidence. Hope is generally used like maybe something will happen or it might not. That is a wrong translation of hope.

It is a living force that causes a believer to press on in faith despite the prevailing circumstances of life. It enables you to keep pressing on till you get your desired result.

Hope means believing when things looks hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be strength.

That is why in Romans 4:18 ‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

NLT ‘Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping–believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have’

That is why that situation if you can only keep your hope alive, you will be victorious in Jesus name.

There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.

A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope!

Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them. If hope holds such power for irrational rats, how much moreshould hope affect our lives.

That is why whatever difficulty you may be facing in life nothing can ever be resolved without hope first. Nothing ever gets done in life without the force of hope. And until hope is in place, faith does not deliver.

WHY DO WE HAVE HOPE

A. Because we serve a God of hope who cannot lie. Rom 15:13 ‘Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’.

Titus 1:1 – 2 ‘Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began

B. Because of Jesus who is our hope and His resurrection. 1 Tim 1:1 ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.

1 Peter 1:3 ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The fact that Jesus Christ resurrected gives us hope that we too will resurrect and that there is no situation, however dead it seems that cannot be resurrected by the power of God.

C. It is an anchor to our soul. Heb 6:18-19 – Please read. We hope because it acts as an anchor to our soul. An anchor is what secures a ship to the bay or the water. Without the anchor the ship gets tossed all over the place because it is not secured. That is why we have to keep our hopes alive. Don’t let your hope be lost because it is what secures your soul. When your hope is not alive, you are like a ship without an anchor that gets tossed thrown here and there.

D. You never get disappointed of feel ashamed if we keep our hopes alive. Romans 5:5 ‘Hope does not disappoint or make ashamed. KJV says hope does not make ashamed. You never in the finally analysis feel ashamed or disappointed if you hold onto to hope. That is why we never throw in the towel or give up. There is no situation we are going through that someone else has not gone through and emerged victorious. There is never a closed door with God.

Scriptures on Hope

Romans 15:4 ‘For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

This means that God gave us the scriptures so that we can learn from it and be comforted that if He did it for the people in the bible, we can have hope that He will do it for us. Bible is a book of hope. That is why you have to read it regularly.

Psalm 33:18 ‘Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. If you fear God and put your hope in Him, God’s eye is upon you.

Psalm 42:5 ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. This scripture shows you can speak to your soul to be hopeful. King David did it.

Proverbs 10:28 ‘The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

Ecclesiastes 9:4 ‘For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. The fact that you are counted among the living, there is hope for you. Can we all say, there is hope for me.

Joel 3:16 ‘The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Zechariah 9:12 ‘Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you’. We are meant to be prisoners of hope meaning that we should never give up hope.

We have examples in the scriptures of people who could have given up but decided not to.

FOR US TO KEEP OUR HOPE ALIVE

1. Have a possibility mentality: Mark 9:23 ‘To Him that believes, all things are possible to him that believes.

Irrespective of the situation around you, keep the right perspective. What are your thoughts about your situation because as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Prov 23:7

Your situation is subject to change. Someone has been through that same situation and emerged victorious. Someone might say what if I keep my hope up and nothing happens, what if something happens? God is your side and He is a God of restoration and He will restore all that you have lost in the name of Jesus.

Refuse to throw in the towel.

Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10 was born in sorrow and had a difficult start in life and he could have remained there but he prayed to the Lord

‘And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested’

Hezekiah was told by prophet he was going to die but he cried unto God and did not give up hope and the Lord added 15 more years to his life.

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, and said,

Isa 38:2-5 “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.

2. Remember past victories. Lamentation 3:21 ‘This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. We need to always remember the goodness of God in our lives. David said in Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy name. Forget not His benefits.

We need to remember past victories in our own lives and in the lives of others around us.

When David was going to fight with Goliath, he remembered past victories. He said the same God that delivered him from the hand of the lion and bear will deliver him from the hand of the uncircumcised philistine.

3. Remain joyful. Romans 12:12 ‘Rejoicing in hope’. Wherever there is joy there will be hope. Today we curse spirit of sorrow or sadness in your life in the name of Jesus.

I command every spirit of depression to lose its grip over your life in the name of Jesus.

What the enemy wants is for you to deny the Lord in the midst of our challenges and leave the faith. Thousands of people have done that before.

May any of us never face challenges that will take us out of Christ in Jesus name.

HOW DO WE GET HOPE?

1. Be born again and stay connected to God. He is the God of hope and if you detach yourself from Him who is the source of hope, everything will begin to look hopeless. That will not be your portion in Jesus name.

2.By Believing Patiently.

Hebrews 6:11-12“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

3. By feeding on the Word of God.

Romans 15:4. “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

4. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

CONCLUSION

Hope is a very powerful virtue. Never give up hope on that situation. God is able to make all things possible but He needs your cooperation and He needs you not to give up hope.

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Dominion Chapel Southall is a branch of Dominion Centre, Wood Green which is part of UPG Ministries.

We are a congregation of different ages, races and cultural backgrounds who come together to get to know and worship God and experience the liberty He has given to us through the death and resurrection of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ.

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